Categories: Things To Do

Downtown Toronto’s urban beach is a city escape without leaving

Image via Eltonlaw/Shutterstock

If you’ve ever cruised along Queen’s Quay in Toronto, you’ve seen the iconic pink umbrellas at the waterfront. Those umbrellas are a part of Sugar Beach, an urban beach that was built downtown back in 2010. Today, it serves as a spot for locals and visitors to feel like they’ve escaped to somewhere much further away from city life.

According to Waterfront Toronto, the beach is located at the foot of Lower Jarvis, adjacent to the Redpath Sugar Factory. You can’t miss it, as the park it resides within stands at a whopping 8,500 square metres, or two acres.

The park is made up of three distinct components: the urban beach, a plaza space, and “a tree-lined promenade.”

Sugar Beach got its name because of the neighbouring Redpath Sugar Factory, and no, the sand is not made of sugar, despite what someone convinced me to believe when I first moved to Toronto ten years ago.

There’s plenty of room to lounge and post up on the sand for a day, with the beach featuring 150 chairs and 36 umbrellas for guests to use.

In an effort to improve accessibility to the beach, Waterfront Toronto also added a boardwalk to the spot, level with the sand, leading to some of the park’s pink beach umbrellas and chairs.

If you’re looking for something to do this summer but don’t have a car to leave the city, Sugar Beach is the ultimate escape (without actually escaping).

Free summer activities all the way!